[MUD-Dev] Depth of realism

[Jon A. Lambert]

J C Lawrence wrote:
>On Mon, 22 Nov 1999 11:33:20 -0600 (EST) 
>Travis S Casey <efindel at io.com> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, J C Lawrence wrote:
>
>>> -- Everybody wants to be the hero.  Nobody wants to be a foot
>>> soldier.
>
>> Actually, I do like to play a foot soldier sometimes -- but then,
>> I'm strange.  :-)
>

I think the most interesting and perhaps difficult roles to play are 
those of the supplicant.  I'm not suggesting that we don't actually 
play those roles in everyday life.  We do in fact play them, although
our western society has a much flatter social heirarchy that demands
less ritual and formality than in ancient and medieval societies.  In
that sense it's harder to get players to suspend their beliefs moreso
than their disbelief.  It is amusing that you will have an easier time
convincing players that water flows uphill than convincing them 
that one falls to ground in the presence of the king.

Many players have a strong resistance to accepting inequality and 
injustice as an unchangeable laws of nature.  One of the more interesting 
ways to increase realism and immersion in an RP-centric game is to 
enforce a highly stratified heirarchical social sphere based on 
mandatory ritual, response and genuflection along with the
appropriate social sticks.  Heinlein's "Farnham's Freehold" and 
Dick's "The Man in the High Castle" are fun reads and exploration 
in how highly individualistic westerners might or might not cope 
within such a society.  Just the other day there was a pretty good 
example of same in the televised ceremony of the English Queen 
opening up the Parliament.   Is it less realistic, but more playable 
and fun, to run a medieval mud with a character social sphere that 
resembles the House of Commons?   Or Is it more realistic, but 
less playable and fun, to run a medieval mud with a character 
social sphere that resembles the House of Lords?  
My campaigns have generally resembled that latter with healthy 
doses of tongue-in-cheek humor.  Translation of that reality into 
a muds social sphere is one of my goals, making it just as fun to be
the squire or slave as it is to be the knight or king.  

>I was just waiting for someone from the RP side to chime in there.
>The difference of course is the valuation of which is more
>important: What the character does, or what the character
>accomplishes?
>
>Process vs goal.
>


Hmm.  Perhaps not only What the character does, but also the How and 
Why.   It's how you look and act while you are "doing" and "accomplishing".  
More important is that others see you "doing" and applaud how appropriately 
you were dressed, spoken, mannered or unmannered you were.  
Attention is the currency of Roleplay.  <hey is that worn out yet?>

--
--*     Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD Email: jlsysinc at nospam.ix.netcom.com     *--
--*     Mud Server Developer's Page <http://jlsysinc.home.netcom.com>      *--
--* "No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson *--





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